Flight Simulator 2004

The 8800GT is the better card out of those two. Although now you are able to buy any card you want, there are other alternatives you could consider.
 
Can I recommend an ATI card. My other half plays nothing but FS2004, but every Nvidia card we have tried AA does not work properly. The only "game" I have ever found this problem with on Nvidia cards, but just my experience.

Also, as stated above, try and get a faster dual-core. FS2004 isn't multithreaded, but the extra core will help with background apps, and any add-ons you might wnt to run with FS2004.
 
ffallic said:
Can I recommend an ATI card. My other half plays nothing but FS2004, but every Nvidia card we have tried AA does not work properly. The only "game" I have ever found this problem with on Nvidia cards, but just my experience.
Click to expand...

Sorry to HiJack this thread but ffallic can you tell me if you get full AA in window mode with a ATI card. Not sure if this is a Vista 64 bit or my Nvidia 8800 ultra problem. In full screen i get full AA but window mode as i like to use so i can utilise a 2 monitor setup i get no AA and the jaggies look terrible Thanks.
 
The machine that we run FS2004 on is an XP machine, and it is always run in full screen mode. If AA works in full mode on yours then perhaps Nvidia have sorted the issue, or maybe it's an XP issue, but it occurred with FX5900, 8600GT, and 8800GTX. No issues with 9700 pro, x1900xt, x1950 pro.

Am just getting the other half to try and run test in windowed mode back home, an will let you know the results - if they run the tests that is.
 
Thanks ffallic for the quick reply but i know full AA works with XP this must be a Vista/Nvidia compatibility problem. Can anyone with a ATI card with Vista 64 bit see if full AA works in window mode Thanks..
 
ffallic said:
Can I recommend an ATI card. My other half plays nothing but FS2004, but every Nvidia card we have tried AA does not work properly. The only "game" I have ever found this problem with on Nvidia cards, but just my experience.
Click to expand...

Nhancer is all you need :)

I run FS9 on an 8800GT with 16xAA 16xAF silky smooth and it looks sublime.
 
Thanks for the suggestions all, I will look into them.

andyp said:
I run FS9 on an 8800GT with 16xAA 16xAF silky smooth and it looks sublime.
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8800GT is my choice at the moment, unless I can find anything else.

dirtydog said:
The 8800GT is the better card out of those two. Although now you are able to buy any card you want, there are other alternatives you could consider.
Click to expand...

Any recommendations?
 
I'm not very up on graphics cards so I'm not the best person to ask - although one thing, in case you don't know, the 9800GT (not 9600GT) is the same as the 8800GT essentially, and can be cheaper so you might wanna look at them too.
 
Go for the ATI 4850 512mb-great card, great price! Probably the current bang for buck card-if you want to spend more look at the Nvidia GTX 260 or ATI 4870, which are pretty similar to each other performance-wise.
 
Not sure if anybody can help me but.... I got my new PC today, only has a 9300GS at the moment. I've installed FS2004 but when I change views nothing happens but the sound changes (as if im changing views) - I've downloaded the latest drivers etc.

Any help? :(
 
In my Device Manger under Sound it shows:

Creatix SAA7131, Hybrid Capture Device
Realtek High Definition Audio

Is that them?
 
Pass - sorry. I don't know enough about FS2004 to comment authoritatively. I expect you might get more tailored advice on a dedicated FS forum.
 
Not sure if this helps anyone that may know but: Windowed mode is when it's not working, full screen is when it is working. Would that indicate a driver problem or something?

EDIT: Managed to fix it now. I had to disable Windows Aero, all is working now. Thanks everybody for the help over the past few weeks!

Sam
 
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Sorry to be a pain guys - Tried Avsim forums but no reply yet. I'm having a few problems with my FPS. If I put max settings on I get 15-23fps. If I put minimum settings I get pretty much the exact fps! - The FPS lock is unchecked so it finds whatever FPS it can...

Anybody ideas how I can increase my FPS? 20fps seems like a nice figure to fly with as everything is quite smooth but anything above would be ideal. My Graphics card is only 256mb, if I got a 1024mb 9800GT for example, would that increase the performance?

Thanks,
Sam
 
Backup your fs9.cfg file then change the following.

TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=50.000000
TERRAIN_MIN_DEM_AREA=10.000000
TERRAIN_MAX_DEM_AREA=100.000000
TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=21
TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8
TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=2
TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1
TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=9.500000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=4.500000
TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=3
 
samufc said:
My Graphics card is only 256mb, if I got a 1024mb 9800GT for example, would that increase the performance?
Click to expand...

A 256MB card is not up to handling FS2004 on max settings.

I ran FS2004 on my old Dell, and replaced the graphics card twice in its lifetime. The last card was an AGP slot X1950 Pro 512mb - Even with that, which was one of the best AGP cards available, FS2004 on max settings was a struggle.

A better graphics card will help you a lot, although its worth noting that super smooth frame rates in FS2004 at max settings, even with todays technology, is something of a holy grail.
 
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